Tuesday, August 6, 2013

During a recent trip to Minneapolis, I had a chance to visit a couple of museums for the first time in several years. The first of these is the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. I was only able to ride the Lake Harriet line.

MSM has two locations, one in the city at Lake Harriet, and the other at Excelsior near Lake Minnetonka. Each location has a single-track line about a mile long, and an attached carbarn/shop facility. Both are located in densely-populated areas with large numbers of walkers, joggers, bikers, and tourists wandering by. So they seem to get a good crowd of riders, especially when the weather is favorable.

Car 1300 is a 1908 wooden streetcar built by Twin Cities Rapid Transit, and has been carefully restored and well maintained. MSM's collection of equipment is entirely cars from the Twin Cities region -- no CTA 4000s or Septa PCCs. Several, like this one, were built by the TCRT company in its own shops.

Here the motorman is giving a car talk at the end of the line. When we were there, there was a constant stream of people lining up to ride the car, and at the end of the trip it was load and go. They try to make a trip every 15 minutes.

The operating crews are all carefully dressed in company uniforms, and present a consistent appearance. Very commendable.

The Lake Harriet line operates over a portion of TCRT ROW. The station building is a replica of the original one at this location.

I was unable to ride the Excelsior line, or see what was going on in the shops, where several cars are being restored. In any case, this museum is well worth a visit. They do an excellent job of recreating the streetcar experience in an urban/suburban setting.

No, it's certainly not meant as a swipe at MOT, or anybody else in particular.

I suppose the main point is that it's good to have a focused collections policy, especially if you have limited resources of one sort or another. MSM has very limited space in which to work -- the carbarn/shop at Lake Harriet is wedged under a highway overpass because that's the only space available. And in these circumstances, their focus on local equipment is exactly correct. You can't collect one of everything because there's nowhere to put it.

In contrast, for example, Seashore set itself the goal of being America's transit museum and having at least one piece from every major city. And if you have the resources to accomplish this, that's fine too. And MOT has every right to collect as many examples of SLCC's products as they can.

I think Randy's comment pertains to the number of CTA 4000s & SEPTA PCCs out there, not to any particular museum. BTW, MOT does not have a 4000, All of their CTA cars are "spamcans", a pair of 6000s & a 1-50.

I also must point out that the "small & focused" museums are the only ones that have all of their collections indoors.

Oh, I was ribbing Randall a little bit. Art, I tend to suffer from CTA Number Series Amnesia, so I forget what's what. Art does have a good point. The smaller museums tend to do a better job at keeping everything under cover. MTM has even deassessioned some Minnesota-specific equipment, most notably a duplicate PCC car, so they could focus on the small and operable collection.

That being said, I do want to visit Ft. Collins soon, since I'm relocating out that way.

David: Yes, that's the backup controller. The conductor runs the backup moves. One thing I forgot to mention is that they somehow have the magical ability to backpole the entire way, even through a frog. This is done on every trip at both locations. I don't understand it. To be sure, they have wheels, and the wire is low, but if I tried it, I'd be bending a pole on every trip.

Ted: Yes, the steamboat Minnetonka is a destination in its own right. I haven't ridden it for several years, maybe next time.

I suspect that MTM uses the older Duplex wire frog, not the SR frog used by IRM & most museums. These are nuch friendlier for backpoling with wheeels, but should not be used extensively with trolley shoes in either direction

The Duplex frog is no longer being produced, but the Pennsylvania Trolley museum snd the Baltimore Streetcar Museum are jointly working to have a batch of these made. Contact me by PM on RYPN for more information.

BTW, David, the people at Ft Collins are very friendly. You may like the place enough to volunteer there, even though it is over 6 hours away from SLC.

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The "Hicks Locomotive and Car Works" banner at the top is taken from original artwork of the company, which was in business from 1897 to 1911. The picture behind it shows the four restored CA&E wood cars at the Museum, starting with #309, which was built by the Hicks Locomotive and Car Works in 1907.

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